May 13, 2008

7pm

Storefront inaugurated a solo exhibition of French artist and architect Didier Fiuza Faustino and his Paris-based practice Bureau des Mésarchitectures (Mathieu Herbelin, Cláudia Martinho, Tony Matias, Guillaume Viaud). Faustino’s large-scale onsite installation (G)HOST IN THE (S)HELL, designed specifically for Storefront for Art and Architecture, occupies the entire gallery and engages its iconic façade by temporarily interrupting its role as a movable, morphable barrier. Using a chain-link fence as a medium to encase and isolate the facade’s panels, (G)HOST IN THE (S)HELL explores the complex role that barriers and thresholds play in defining and creating public and private space. This idea is central to Faustino/Mésarchitectures’ work.

The opening reception featured a special projection designed by Didier Fiuza Faustino/Bureau des Mésarchitectures.

About the artist
Didier Fiuza Faustino (1968), a French artist and architect practicing between Paris and Lisbon, is the principal of Bureau des Mésarchitectures. Faustino’s work frequently questions the relationship between the body and architecture, investigating ideas of intimacy and desire within exhibition and communication. Through performance, installation, and immersive environments, Faustino explores the body’s potential for action removed from the architectural contexts that define them. His work creates rational, monolithic spaces, devoid of any representational device and disconnected from all outside circumstances.

(G)host in the (S)hell was generously sponsored by Étant Donnés and was presented courtesy of Galerie Gabrielle Maubrie.

Projection sponsored by LMCC (Lower Manhattan Cultural Council). The installation was made possible by Academy Fence Company, New Jersey.